1491

The book is organized around three big questions: how many people lived in the Americas, how long they had been there, and how much they shaped their environment. Mann describes the great Inka empire, the city of Tenochtitlan, the ancient cities of Mexico and the Andes, the mound-building society of Cahokia and the communities of the Amazon, where people enriched the soil and shaped the forest over centuries.

He also explains how epidemics brought by Europeans spread ahead of the explorers and killed a large share of the population, so that many later visitors saw an emptied land and mistook it for an untouched one. Mann presents debates fairly, showing where researchers disagree, and mixes scholarship with travel, interviews and lively storytelling. Some readers find the structure jumps around, but the ideas are fascinating and the writing is clear.

Eye-opening, engaging and thought-provoking, a book that changes how many readers see the history of the Americas. It is followed by a companion volume, 1493, about the world after Columbus. About 541 pages in the Vintage paperback, the revised second edition.